Holiday inspiration needed! Beach hol under four hours from UK...?

[SRH]

My boyfriend and myself are hoping to get away in mid-September for a week and wondered if anyone had any recommendations...

Here are our criteria:

1. Under �350
2. Hot
3. Preferably with a beach nearby and a swimming pool
4. No Club 18-30 lager louts!
5. Good choice of local bars/restaurants for the evenings (doing local food - no 'egg, chips and English fry-up' type eateries

We love Nice and were thinking of going there again, but the pebbly beach is a pain. Other places we've thought of include: Malta, Greek Islands, Portugal...

But any ideas will be welcomed!

[Buenchico]

Barcelona's a wonderful place for a holiday. It combines great beaches with all that a major city has to offer. It's packed with great restaurants (serving fantastic Catalonian paella), with lively (but not rowdy) bars, loads to do and see and a good (cheap) integrated transport system:
http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/

Typical mid-September temperatures are around 25C:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city_guides /results.shtml?tt=TT004270

Chris

[coke71]

Venice is still hot in sept, when we went a few years ago at beginning of sept it was around 25-30 *c. people always say it is expensive but we found if you went off the beaten track down the back streets we found some little gems, family run restaurants that we're very cheap and the food gorgeous and not an English/Irish pub in sight plus you can hop on to a vaperetto (waterbus) over to the lido- a stretch of beach just across the lagoon, where there has been known to have the odd film star found on it. (and I think the Venice film festival is on around sept time). and if you search the net there are plenty of little family run b&b's that would look after you better than some 5* hotels. this site has a few you could try looking at if it takes your fancy http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/. it has the added bonus of not having any lager louts plus we hardly saw any screaming kids running about either...which is always an advantage ;) Venice is one of the most beautiful places i've ever visited, a great place to lose yourself in , chill out or just people watch. me and the hubby are off to Barcelona in august for a week without the kids and after reading Beunchico's write up- I can't wait. Where ever you choose I hope you have a great time :)

[SRH]

Cheers guys. I LOVE Barcelona! One of my favourite cities - will be going there again, but might try somewhere different this year because I've been a few times already.

Hadn't thought of Venice... will have to see if my pennies stretch that far ;)

[caththecrazy]

I think Venice is quite expensive compared to Barcelona.

Is under �350 for B& B or half board or AI?

Check out Santorini - if you like Greece